INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY BACKS COMMITMENT OF SOMALIA’S ELECTORAL BODIES TO ENFORCE RULES OF ELECTORAL PROCESS AND NULLIFY RESULTS OF MANIPULATED VOTING

The United Nations, African Union, European Union, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, Ethiopia, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States commend the Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (FIEIT), the State-Level Indirect Electoral Implementation Teams and the Independent Electoral Dispute Resolution Mechanism (IEDRM) for the progress achieved so far in the implementation of the electoral process in a complex and extremely challenging political, security and cultural context.

They welcome the determination of the implementing bodies to enforce the rules of the 2016 electoral process as stipulated by the National Leadership Forum (NLF), in particular their resolve to sanction efforts to influence the election results through corruption, intimidation, manipulation or other malpractices.

The international community will firmly support decisions by the FIEIT and the IEDRM to nullify election results that have been rigged through such misconduct and to disqualify candidates who have engaged in such malpractices.

The international community will also insist on compliance by all stakeholders with the code of conduct and the rules of the electoral process, including those pertaining to the representation of women in the new parliament. This includes concern over allegations that some clans that have been assigned three or more seats in the federal parliament’s House of the People are refusing to comply with the NLF requirement that one of every three seats be reserved exclusively for women candidates.

The NLF decided that the seats of any clan failing to fulfill this requirement will be suspended, pending a decision by the relevant State-Level Indirect Electoral Implementation Team and regional administration on the status of those seats.

The international community calls on all parties to scrupulously comply with the rules and the code of conduct governing Somalia’s electoral process in order to safeguard its credibility and the legitimacy of its results.